Afraid
by Sub-Zero MKA
Summary: A brief look into the thoughts of Tony in regards to the Maximoffs. All characters credited to Marvel Studios. Rated for language.


_**Afraid**_

The threat of Ultron brought a desperation that none of the Avengers had anticipated they were ever be confronted with. It seemed that no matter what they did, he had a counter for everything. Of course he did, because that was how Tony designed him. At times, he hated being such an uncanny genius.

That desperation drove Steve to bring in two new members. These new members? Why, their two biggest fans, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. It wasn't often that Tony questioned Steve's judgment - not seriously, anyway - but he did in this case. And, to the surprise of no one, they didn't like it either. So, no one really liked anyway, and that was just fantastic.

He just had to come right out and say it – the fast kid was a complete and total douche. Whenever he opened his mouth, it was either something irreparably insulting for absolutely no reason or… well, that seemed to be all the kid knew how to say. Insults. This, that and plenty of the other about him and the other Avengers.

Okay, he didn't like them. That was fine. It was just fucking peachy. Tony was more than used to people not liking him. Hell, he was actually shocked when people genuinely seemed to like him upon first meeting. He wasn't the easiest guy to get along with, what with his laundry list of issues, insecurities and just plain being an ass.

But this fucking guy, this Pietro Maximoff, was him times a hundred. He was abrasive, foul tempered, impatient and rude to everyone – which included Pepper, which really pissed Tony off. It was like he didn't have a nice thing to say to anyone.

Well, not quite true. He had plenty of nice things to say to that emo, neo-gothic, creep sister of his. While she wasn't outright confrontational, she was worse. Way worse. She would sit there and just watch. Watching with her over shadowed emerald eyes, judging them silently like some middle aged pastor's wife. Tony knew she was judging them because every time one of them passed by her, she kept her eyes on them in a suspicious sidelong stare, as if daring them to force her to unleash all the dirty little secrets she knew about them.

He didn't like being alone in a room with her. She was quiet and creepy and when she wasn't staring at him like his angry mother, she was whispering weird shit under her breath. Like, magical shit. He was actually genuinely afraid of her.

She was an unknown. Her and her brother had powers that Tony had never seen before. Superspeed without any known limits and whatever the hell that red stuff the girl could throw around made his skin crawl. It was unpredictable. Pietro, he was predictable. Well, insofar as he knew exactly what he could do and could make educated assumptions on the applications of his abilities. Wanda, she was the opposite.

She was unpredictable, chaotic. One moment, her blasts - or hexbolt, as she called it - did one thing, the next, they did the exact opposite. They were potent, deadly and in no way was he able to come up with an active counter for them outside of "jump out of the way and don't let it connect".

With all that in mind, he understood why Steve wanted to work with them. Gifted people were cropping up all over the place. People with mysterious powers developed through one means or another. Wanda and Pietro were just another two in a long line of people that completely outclassed everyone he had ever been up against. If Loki ever grew the balls to show his face on Earth again, he would get his ass kicked in _extremely_ short order.

But it wasn't just how they helped the team, but that, with the exception of Thor and Bruce, those two could absolutely destroy the team. They were two Gifted's going up again four normal humans, provided Tony was unable to get to his suit in time. It wouldn't be much of a fight. Pietro was hilarious faster than bullets, arrows and shields, and Wanda could probably tear through most, of not all of Tony's suits, if Pietro even allowed him time to suit up. Even then, he wouldn't be able to hit him.

He was afraid of them. He would never admit it out loud, nor would he think it after this moment, but he was afraid of them. Afraid of what they could do. Afraid that they knew absolutely nothing about them other than they were kept prisoner by Hydra. Afraid that they weren't their biggest fans, and thus had no emotional obligation toward them whatsoever.

For as much as Pietro pissed him off, which was a lot, he knew better than to try and even make it seem that he was trying to pick a fight. If there was one thing he learn the one time he did, it was that speed killed. It was the great unequalizer. It was the difference between Thor swinging his hammer down on Pietro's smug face and breaking the table behind him. It was the difference between Clint moving to sit down in his chair and falling flat on his ass.

It was the difference between Steve being alive and him being riddled with butcher knives.

It was the difference between Natasha being on solid ground and her suddenly falling over the balcony.

And then, there was Wanda. Pietro was straightforward. They knew what he could do; it was only a matter of being unable to stop him in time. Wanda, she was the opposite. They didn't know what her powers were going to do from one moment to the next, but they had ways to stop her. She was normal in that she moved at _their_ pace. They could take her out if they needed to.

_If_ Pietro let them.

Speed killed, after all.

If push came to shove, Tony wasn't sure they could take them out. And it was a very real possibility that they would have to. They weren't heroes. They weren't even people who did the right thing all the time. They were just a pair of runaways who volunteered for testing at a facility for money. A facility that just so happened to be run by Hydra. They were anti-Avengers activists who really didn't care for the team. Hated, more like. If it suited them, they could and probably would turn on them. And they'd get away with it, because as it stood, only Thor and Hulk stood a chance.

Of course, that was assuming Pietro allowed Bruce the chance to transform and didn't immediately incapacitate him. Or worse.

Tony had long since learned to assume the worst about people. He assumed the worst about them and opted to be pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be completely different. He hoped that this was one of those times. He wanted Wanda and Pietro to be welcomed into their little ragtag family. He wanted them to come to appreciate and maybe even come to like them as people. He wanted them to stick around long enough for them to realize that what they had heard on TV and read in the tabloids and on the Internet about the Avengers was wrong.

If that happened, awesome. Then they could be one big, happy, mismatched family. Hell, he'd noticed Steve giving Wanda a few lingering glances from time to time, and Natasha somehow wasn't completely put off by Pietro.

If it didn't… if worst came to worst, Tony didn't think they could stop them if they completed a heel turn. And that scared him.


End file.
